Article
Analysis: “Why Are People in Red States Dropping Out of the Labor Force?”

In the article “Why Are
People in Red States Dropping Out of the Labor Force?” the authors, Sarah
Chaney and Sharon Nunn discuss the differences between the work forces of blue
states and red states.  Blue states are
defined as the states that voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential
election while red states are defined as states that voted for President Donald
Trump. 

The article states that
although the labor market has grown throughout the nation, red states have
lagged behind blue states comparatively. 
The data from this article is based on research from the Institute of
International Finance, which found that the percentage of people in search of
work has declined in red states while it has increased in blue states.

This article relates to the
economic principles of unemployment and labor force/work force.  According to our textbook, unemployment is
defined as the number of people in the economy who have not had a job for at
least a week but have actively searched for employment in the past 4
weeks.  Those who are unemployed and
those who are employed are considered part of the labor force.  Those who do not have a job and have not
actively searched for a job in the past 4 weeks are no longer considered part
of the labor force.

 Labor force is defined as the number of a
country’s population employed in the armed forces and civilian jobs, plus those
unemployed people who are seeking paid employment.  Unemployment rates in red states have
declined more rapidly than unemployment rates in blue states.  This is due largely to the fact that there are
a greater number of individuals in red states who have chosen to completely
exit the workforce and discontinue searching for a job.  As previously stated, this means that those
individuals who exited the workforce are not considered unemployed and do not
contribute to the unemployment rate.  This
trend of exiting the workforce has increased throughout the nation.

Research, by the IIF, has
been conducted to pinpoint the cause of these trends.  Demographics and differences in economic
growth between states have been ruled out as causes of these discrepancies. The
IIF found that the most likely cause of the inconsistencies between red state
and blue state labor force participation is the fact that red states tend to
have more jobs that are considered slow growing such as manufacturing and
retail while blue states have an abundance of jobs in the technology and life
sciences categories.

In conclusion, although red
states are statistically better off in the unemployment realm in comparison to
blue states, they have a much lower rate of labor force participation than blue
states do.